William h



tlltited gime WILLIAM H. MCHENCH, or-ooBLEsKILIt NEW YORK.

team Patent No. 102,845, lated May 1o, 1ero.v

MROVED LADDER.

` The Schedulerfertedto in these Letters Patent and making part ofthesaine.

To all whom it may concern Y Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. MCHESCH, of

Coblcskill,in the county of Schoharie and State of New York, haveinvented'a new and useful Improvement in Ladders; andI do' herebydeclare that the following is a full, clear, and exact descriptionthereof, which will enable others skilled in-the art to make and use thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part ofthis specification.

This invention relates to a new and useful improvementiu ladders, andconsists in making the ladder self-supporting by connecting two ladderstogether forming a double ladder, as hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of adouble selfsupporting ladder constructed according to my invention, thesection being through the line x :r of tig. 2.

Figure 2 is a front elevation.

Similar detters ot' reference indicate corresponding parts.

A A represent two ladders or .sets of rails and rounds, which may beidentical inform and size, or nearly so.'

They are connected at their top ends by a round, B, (loosely,) so thatthe two ladders may be folded up lor spread apart at the bottom. Byspreading the bottoms the double ladder is made self-supporting, as seenin tig. 1.

vlO is a platform directly above the double ladder, attached to twobrackets D D.

The round B passes through these brackets, and the platform is supportedthereby.

These brackets extend down with a slot, E, in each.

F F, F F are arms, which are attached at one end p to a round in eachladder, as seen at G G.

H is a rod, which passes through their other ends,

vas seen at I I; there are two pairs of arms arranged in this manner.

The connections G and I form joints, so that when the two parts of theladder A A are folded or broughttngether, the rod H will slip upthe slotE.

When Athe parts A Aare extended, as seen iu fig. 1, the-platform C' ismaintained in a horizontal posi tion bythe arms F, while the parts ofthe ladder A A are preventedI from spreading by the same means, thusforming va self-supporting ladder with a firm platt'orm at its top.

These ladders may be made of any desired length, so as to adapt them toall the various purposes, for which step-ladders andr otherself-supportingladders are used. For picking fruit or pruning trees, orfor use in stores and dwellings, and in various other 'situations, thisladder will be found venr valuable.

Having thus described my invention,

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- In duplicateladders, the brackets D D, attached at the vertex of the angle formed bythe ladder tothe rod B, and provided with slots, closedat their lowerends, to prevent the lateral spread of the two parts beyond a certainlimit.

The above specification of my invention signed by me this 10th day vofSeptember, 1869. t

Witnesses: W. H. MCHENCH.

PETER SWART, J. J. DromNsoN.

